Silent Knife (A Celebration Bay Mystery) (23 page)

“Do you have much left to do?”

“I haven’t started yet.”

“Oh dear. Not at all?”

Liv shook her head. “Been too busy. And I have to mail a bunch to my family. At this rate they won’t get them before Christmas.” Actually they never got their presents at Christmas. It had become a family joke. “Liv always sends her presents in January when the rush is over and the bills come in and you really need some Christmas cheer.”

“Ted said I could have the day off.”

“Why don’t you leave Whiskey with us? Then you won’t have to leave him outside or carry him when you’re in the stores.”

Liv had planned to drop him by the office, but this would be even better.

“Thanks, I’m sure he’d love to spend the morning with his two favorite ladies.”

Miss Ida leaned over and slipped him another piece of biscuit. “We know how men hate to shop, don’t we, sweetums?”

Whiskey happily followed Miss Ida into the house. Liv wrapped her scarf over her chin to ward off the wind and set off to town. She stopped by Dolly’s and explained that she needed only one pastry since she was going shopping.

“Ted told me.” Dolly handed her a bag containing a cranberry orange muffin that was large enough for at least two people.

She went next door to the Buttercup.

“Ted came by and said you’d be in late. Sit down for a minute.” BeBe made Liv’s usual latte, poured herself a cup, then joined Liv at one of the small tables. “Are you really going Christmas shopping?”

“I am.”

“Have you made a list?”

“And checked it twice. And don’t ask me what’s on it. Just know that I correlated the gifts with a list of local stores and I plan to buy something at all of them.”

“That could take forever.”

“I don’t have forever. I’ll drive over to the Yarn Barn this afternoon and hope they have some of those cute hats and scarves left. Perfect for the aunts and uncles. And Miriam had these wonderful three-dimensional paper stars at A Stitch in Time. She’s saving me a few for my sister, the Christmas nut.

“I’ll hit the two dress shops on the other side of the square for my mother and grandmother. The Bookworm for my father.”

“Are you going to Trim a Tree?”

“Not a chance, but I do plan on loading up with some natural products from the Pyne Bough. Let’s see, did I miss anyone?”

“The newsstand?”

“Okay, I’ll pick up a few magazines. I wonder . . .”

“What?”

“I just thought about all those cigarette butts Phil Cosgrove left in the alley. I wonder if he went into the newsstand. And if Mr. Valenski talked to him.”

“I knew you couldn’t keep your mind off that topic for very long.”

Liv sighed. “I just want this all to really work. To be the best Harvest Festival, the best Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve Celebration Bay ever had. And I can’t do that,” she lowered her voice, “if people keep getting murdered.”

“True. At least not if it happens right downtown and the killer is still at large.”

The door opened, bringing in a frigid gust of wind and Janine Tudor. She was wearing a fitted camel coat and a stylish cloche hat. Her platinum-frosted hair fell straight to her shoulder as if it had never seen a breeze much less the winter gusts that were blowing outside. At least she’d exchanged her usual stilettos for fur-trimmed high-heeled boots.

“There goes my Christmas cheer,” Liv said in an undertone.

BeBe grimaced and stood. “Good morning, Janine. Can I get you something?”

Janine huffed. “If I wanted a four-dollar cup of coffee, I’d drive to Albany to get it.”

Four dollars?
Liv mouthed.

BeBe shrugged and managed to get back to the counter before snorting out a giggle.

Janine zeroed in on Liv. “I need to speak to you.”

“And there goes my lovely shopping day.” Liv had known that expecting Janine to continue keeping a low profile over the TAT situation was a hope in a bucket. It was true that Liv saved her skinny butt not long ago, but it just seemed to have increased Janine’s resentment. Though she had been giving Liv a wide berth lately—until now.

Janine sat down in BeBe’s vacated seat. “You’ve got to do something.”

“Want to give me a context?” Liv asked.

“Everyone is blaming me for that crazy woman in the Trim a Tree store.”

“Well, Grace Thornsby said you told her the one-Santa rule was no big deal.”

“I told her no such thing. I didn’t talk to her. Clarence did all the negotiations.” Janine’s eyes rolled upward. “Tried to finagle a lower rent. Grace just stood in the background, flashing tacky jewelry. New money.” Janine’s mouth curled. “You can tell every time, if it’s not the way they talk or walk, it’s what they wear.”

“Janine, I’m not the fashion police.”

Janine gave Liv’s L. L. Bean cable-knit sweater the once-over. “Obviously. But not even you would wear that tasteless bling. Bigger in some cases is not better. Just gaudy.” She shook herself. Gold earrings flashed between the strands of perfectly styled hair. “I want you to get rid of her.”

“Janine, you were responsible for renting the place to them. You figure out a way to evict them.”

“I can’t. Only Jeremiah Atkins can do that, he’s the landlord. But he refuses to do anything. I think he enjoys making my life miserable.

“I won’t have a moment’s peace until she and her horrid store are gone. Dolly Hunnicutt had the nerve to charge me the tourist rate at the bakery. And Rufus Cobb took my parking space when he has a perfectly good space at the B and B. And stayed there all day.”

Janine hadn’t worked at town hall for over four months but still somehow thought she should be allowed to keep her reserved space in the employees lot.

She seemed to run out of steam. “If you and Ted had just left well enough alone, she would have been out of here as soon as Christmas was over. Those kinds of stores always close after the holidays. But no. You had to give her a hard time. Now, she’ll probably never leave, just to spite us, and it’s all your fault. You have to do something.”

Liv nearly choked on her coffee. “Me? How do you figure that one?”

“Well, we never had any murders before you came.”

“Oh please. Some people might say that we wouldn’t have had this one if you hadn’t rented the store to Trim a Tree and their illegal Santa.” Liv could have kicked herself for that retort. She knew not to engage. You could never win an argument if you tried to reason with someone like Janine, or tried to outyell them. You had to act before they knew what you were doing. “In fact . . .”

Liv stood, grabbed her parka off the back of the chair, took Janine by the elbow, and muscled her toward the door.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“
We’re
doing. You and I are going down the street to speak with Grace.
You’re
going to explain to her that you misrepresented the rental space.
I’m
going to make sure this time you actually do it. Then
you’re
going to tell her that you completely understand and will speak to the landlord about releasing her from her rental agreement.”

“I will not.”

“Or
I’ll
make sure the next time you try to buy a coffee it will be ten dollars, not four.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Oh yes she can,” BeBe said from the espresso machine.

“That’s extortion.”

“That’s life.”

BeBe grinned and fist-pumped the air.

“I’ll be back,” Liv told BeBe as she guided Janine toward the door. “Don’t let my latte get cold.”

“I’ll make you a fresh one—on the house.”

Liv wrestled Janine through the door and out onto the sidewalk. “Would you like to do this is in a dignified manner, or do you want to give your neighbors even more to talk about?”

Janine stopped struggling, pulled her arm away, and straightened her coat. “One day, Liv Montgomery.”

“Janine, give it up. I didn’t take your job as coordinator. You were a volunteer. You could have applied for the job if you wanted it that bad.”

Janine’s lips tightened until they were bloodless and two slashes of pink that weren’t makeup appeared on her cheekbones.

Oh crap
, thought Liv.
She did apply and they passed over her to hire me.
“Can’t we just call a truce and work on getting this embarrassment off Main Street and replace it with something that is profitable
and
appropriate? You’ll be hailed as the one who reestablished harmony. And everyone will be so grateful.” For about ten seconds, and Liv bet Janine knew it, but at least Liv was offering her a way to save face, at least in her own mind.

Janine huffed out a resigned sigh. “All right. I’ll see what I can do. But I can’t promise miracles.”

Liv opened the door to the Trim a Tree, and they both stepped inside to the tinny ho-ho-ho’ing of the mechanical Santa.

Grace was sitting on a stool behind the cash register, thumbing through the pages of what appeared to be a travel magazine.

“What do you want now?” she asked Liv, and turned the page of her magazine.

“Ms. Tudor has something to say to you.” Liv poked Janine for encouragement.

Janine begrudgingly took a step toward Grace. “There seems to have been some misunderstanding at the initial lease signing.” She ran her tongue over her lips.

“There was no misunderstanding. You said they couldn’t enforce the Santa rule. I heard you when Clarence signed the lease.”

Janine glanced sideways at Liv. “I said that although it wasn’t an actual law, that merchants have honored the . . . custom since it began. And that . . . the town—”

“Save your breath.” Grace looked to her left as if she’d heard or seen someone, but there was only shelves of cartoon Santa statues. “You know what? You can have this dump back for all I care. I’ve got better things to do.”

Liv wondered if she had managed to clean Clarence out, like people were saying. She might have once been a good-looking woman, but it would take more than her acerbic lack of charm to keep a younger man in the style he expected to become accustomed to.

“But you’ll have to talk to Clarence. He signed the lease. Dumb fool.” She snorted out a derisive laugh. “And speak of the devil. Here he is, and Sheriff Gunnison, too.”

The door opened, the Santa ho-ho-ho’ed. Bill winced. Clarence Thornsby walked over to the Santa and yanked the plug out of the socket. He crossed his arms and turned to Grace.

Grace ignored him. “Well, Sheriff, did you come here for me to sign a complaint against that little thief and her boyfriend?”

“Penny Newland is no thief, and neither is Jason Tully. Your husband took that money.”

Grace switched her scowl to Clarence.

“Well, you could have told me before I accused that poor Newland girl.”

Liv stifled a groan. Grace’s suddenly generous spirit was as fake as her jewelry.

“Don’t you look at me like that,” Clarence said. “I knew if I didn’t take it you’d squander it on that muscleman you’ve been keeping.”

For the briefest moment, Grace looked nonplused.

“But it stops now. I’m filing for divorce. You’re a mean-spirited woman, Grace. I’ll be glad to see the back of you. And don’t bother countersuing. You’ve gotten all you’re getting from me.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“If you ever bothered to talk to me, your husband, you’d know that I had to declare bankruptcy. There’s nothing left. You can pass that along to your boy toy and see how long he sticks around.”

Clarence turned to leave, and Grace lunged at him. Bill grabbed her and held on.

“Loser,” she cried. “After all I’ve put up with. Your dumb jokes. Your bad breath. Your fat belly. And you’re lousy in bed.”

“Euww, TMI,” Janine said under her breath.

Clarence stopped at the door. “Hank warned me about marrying you. I should’ve listened. I’m on my way to see Jeremiah Atkins and try to talk him into letting me out of the lease. If you want to keep this store, you’ll have to pay for it yourself.”

Grace’s anger changed immediately to something much calmer and more sinister. “Tell him I’ll just stick around until the end of the month to keep an eye on things.”

Keep an eye on what things? Liv wondered. After all the trouble she’d caused, not only would the locals not patronize her store, but they would encourage tourists to join the boycott.

Grace had relaxed slightly and there was a sly smile on her face. What the heck was she up to?

“Good-bye, Clarence.”

He opened the door.

“And good riddance.”

“The feeling’s mutual.” The door slammed behind him. For once there was no “Ho, ho, ho” to see him out.

Bill looked at Liv and nodded toward the door. Liv was more than ready to go, and so was Janine, who’d already started her escape.

“Oh by the way,” Bill said. “Penny Newland won’t be working here anymore. Under the circumstances, she decided it would be better to look for work elsewhere.”

“Well, she can try. She was totally useless. I can’t imagine who’d hire her. The only reason she was here was because Clarence insisted.” Her eyes rolled to the back of her head. “Some outmoded sense of family. They were only third cousins or something.” She sighed. Looked at her nails. “Though I suppose failing businesses might run in the family.”

“Actually she’s working at A Stitch in Time nights, and she starts at the Pyne Bough this afternoon,” Bill said.

Grace flinched, clearly surprised, but she recovered quickly. “Well, I hope they don’t regret it.”

That was all Liv was willing to hear; she opened the door. Janine scuttled out, and Liv and Bill were right behind her.

“What a be-otch,” Janine said.

Liv didn’t point out that this might be a case of the pot calling the kettle be-otch.

Clarence was waiting on the sidewalk. Liv had trouble meeting his eye.

“I’ve been a fool,” Clarence said. “I know that. I sure hope it wasn’t my fault that someone killed Phil Cosgrove. I hired him. I got so sick of her talking about Hank this and Hank that, and how great he was. I thought for sure she wanted this store so she could reacquaint herself with him. I was so sick of her by then, I would have welcomed it.”

“So why didn’t you just divorce her?” Bill said, his voice vibrating with exasperation.

“I didn’t know then that I couldn’t work my way out of this financial hole, and I didn’t want her to get half of my hard-earned money. She’s wearing over half of my income on her neck. I thought if Phil could get evidence that she was committing adultery, I could get out of giving her anything.”

“That tacky jewelry is real?”

“And did he get evidence?” Liv asked, ignoring Janine’s outburst.

“He found out she was seeing this goon from some gym around here. I have his report at home. And also that she was skimming the till.” Clarence frowned, his face was chalky white. “Then he said he was really onto something. I thought great, I could get rid of her sooner than later. But he said it wasn’t about Grace.”

“Did he say what it was?” Bill asked.

Clarence shook his head. “Just that he wanted to stay on an extra week without pay. Just to keep an eye on things.”

Liv looked from Clarence to Bill. Janine had lost interest and was inching away from the group.

“Sorry if I caused trouble for you, Janine. It was a stupid idea.”

Janine flicked the air with manicured nails. “Not at all.” She looked at Liv. “It was all
Grace’s
fault.”

Okay
, Liv thought. That might be progress. At least she was shifting blame from Liv to Grace. She doubted if Janine would ever take the responsibility for any of her own actions.

“Sorry for all the trouble we caused,” said Clarence. He huffed out a sigh. “Well, I’d best catch Jeremiah. Then I have a meeting with my lawyers.”

“Sorry about your bad luck,” Liv said.

“I tried to expand too fast in an economy where people weren’t buying boats.” His eyes suddenly teared up. “It’s been a pretty rotten few years.”

Liv couldn’t think of a thing to say. She couldn’t see his life getting better any time soon.

Clarence shoved his hands in his pockets and walked off down the street.

“Whew,” Bill said. “I’m with Clarence. I’ll be glad to see the back of that woman.”

“You and everyone else,” Liv said.

“Maybe she killed that PI. I wouldn’t put it past her,” Janine said.

“She has an alibi.”

“Too bad. If Grace had killed him, you could have arrested her and we wouldn’t be stuck with her for the next few weeks.”

Liv winced. “She didn’t seem at all upset by the news that Clarence had declared bankruptcy. Do you think she’s been socking away money?”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”

“I would have if I’d been married to him.” Janine shuddered dramatically. “Did you see that beer gut? And he wears polyester. What?” Janine asked, seeing Bill’s and Liv’s expressions. “I mean if I were Grace. Which I’m not. Euww.”

“Well, I’d best be going,” Bill said. “I hope there’s an end to it. I haven’t been able to make one choir practice.”

“Et tu, Bill?” Liv asked. “Does the whole town sing in the
Messiah
choir?”

“Not in the choir. There’s only about thirty of us, though anybody who can even remotely carry a tune comes to the sing-along.” His mouth drooped. “At the rate this investigation is going, I’ll probably have to miss it this year.”

“But Penny may actually get to sing,” Liv said. “I heard her in church last Sunday. What a voice.”

“Wait until you hear her solo. She sings like a real angel. Now, you ladies better get inside where it’s warm.”

Liv and Janine watched Bill stride up the street humming. Before he climbed into his police cruiser, Liv heard him singing. The car door closed on “He shall feed his flock.”

Janine turned to Liv. “Now that that’s over, we’re even.”

“What? How do you figure that?”

“Tit for tat.”

Liv considered. “Maybe.”

Janine lifted her chin, then minced and slid down the sidewalk. Liv watched her go. She’d never intended to use certain information against Janine, but it wouldn’t hurt for Janine not to know that. It might just keep her in line in the future.

*

It was almost lunchtime and Liv hadn’t even started her shopping. She wanted more coffee since she hadn’t finished her last cup. But it occurred to her that if Grace was closing and still had the extra Santa suit, she might be willing to sell it to Liv . . . cheap. She would need every penny if she wasn’t going to get alimony from the bankrupt Clarence. And Liv could hold on to the Santa suit in case of emergencies. It paid to have a backup, as they had learned just last week. And Nancy could burn sage over it, to chase away the evil spirits.

So casting a longing look down the street to the Buttercup, Liv steeled herself and stepped back into Trim a Tree. The tinny “Ho, ho, ho” greeted her, and Liv gritted her teeth. Was Grace just born belligerent?